Who signs a Compute Purchase Agreement — and who doesn't. A data centre needs fifteen-year revenue; its customers buy compute by the hour. The institution that carries that gap will define the intelligence economy. Second essay in the Convergence Assets series. The first argued that in AI infrastructure
Why the defining instrument of AI infrastructure finance won't be written in Virginia or Silicon Valley — and why the future belongs to whoever can price power, compute, sovereignty and development as one asset In September 2023, Nairobi hosted the Africa Climate Summit — I served as its CEO — and
Strategic Minerals TWG Sets Course for WAIIS 2026 with US$50bn Pipeline The Strategic Minerals Technical Working Group has confirmed the architecture for West Africa’s mineral value-addition agenda ahead of the WAIIS Summit in Freetown, 16–19 November 2026. Seven outcome areas, five workstreams Seven outcome areas from
Digital Transformation TWG Confirms Digital Embassy as Priority Product for WAIIS Summit The Digital Transformation Technical Working Group has confirmed the Digital Embassy as a priority product to carry forward to the WAIIS Summit, 16–19 November 2026 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Regionally endorsed under the ECOWAS economic integration agenda,
WAIIS Agribusiness TWG Confirms Summit Dates and Two-Track Deal Room The Agribusiness & Food Systems Transformation TWG has confirmed the WAIIS Summit for 16–19 November 2026 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and adopted a two-track deal room structure designed to serve projects of every size and maturity. What
A year ago, the AI Hub for Sustainable Development opened with a diagnosis. Its report Unlocking Compute in Africa named the binding constraint plainly: African innovators did not lack talent or ideas. They lacked access to compute. This week the Hub closed the loop with evidence. Its new impact report,
WAIIS is not a summit you observe from afar. With hybrid access, virtual delegate passes, diaspora pathways for capital and expertise, and G2G engagement mechanisms, it is built for participation across borders.
If you are under 30, building a startup, or still in university with an idea worth testing, WAIIS was built with you in mind. Free youth passes, a cross-border hackathon, pitch access, sponsored ambassadors, and practical bootcamps make this your summit. Too many young founders and students still assume
WAIIS is not only for ministers, investors, and large firms. If you run a small business, trade across borders, or belong to a market association, this summit is designed to help you find buyers, understand the rules, and enter bigger regional markets with more confidence. There is a familiar mistake
Eight days to Freetown. Ministers, heads of delegation, investors, DFIs, and technical experts from 15 West African nations are converging for WAIIS. Attendance is by registration only, and available seats are narrowing fast. Eight days from now, Freetown becomes one of the most important policy-and-capital meeting points in
Most summit deal rooms promise access. Very few are structured to reduce transaction friction. In Freetown, WAIIS is designing a deal room around a simple commercial question: what does it take for investors and DFIs to leave with bankable next steps, not just new contacts?
West Africa’s digital economy is expanding on infrastructure it does not own, under legal regimes it does not control, and through platforms that extract more value than they create locally. That is not digital transformation. It is digital dependency at scale.